http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/business/muzak-background-music-to-life-to-lose-its-name.html
Muzak, Background Music to Life, to Lose Its Name
By BEN SISARIO
For the word Muzak, the long elevator ride is finally over.
Not that lilting instrumentals or mixes of pop hits are likely to
disappear from restaurants, shops and offices. But the Muzak name long
part of the American vernacular, if sometimes as the butt of jokes will
be retired this week as part of a reorganization by its owner, Mood Media.
Mood Media, based in Concord, Ontario, has become a leader in so-called
sensory marketing, providing stores and other businesses the sights,
sounds and even smells to envelop their customers. In addition to Muzak,
which it bought two years ago for $345 million, Mood has divisions for
signs, interactive displays and scents, which it says reach 150 million
people each day at more than 500,000 locations around the world, from
Saks Fifth Avenue to Petco.
On Tuesday, the company will announce that it is consolidating its
services under a single brand, Mood, thus eliminating the Muzak name.
Its the end of an iconic American brand, said Lorne Abony, Mood Medias
chairman and chief executive.
The move reflects the growing sophistication of in-store services, as
well as the pressures facing physical retailers in the Internet age. At
Moods interactive kiosks, for example, shoppers can try on clothes
virtually, while the company pipes in upbeat songs and scents intended
to set a mood or cover up unpleasant odors.
Theres a huge opportunity and a need for physical retailers to make the
experience more interactive as they do battle against online channels,
said Edward S. Williams, a digital entertainment analyst at BMO Capital
Markets in New York.
Mr. Abony said that Moods background music services, including Muzak and
DMX which it bought last year generate about 90 percent of the
companys sales. In the third quarter of last year, it had $120 million
in revenue and $32 million in earnings before interest, depreciation and
amortization.
But the company wants to expand its other services by offering clients a
broad menu under one name, particularly in the United States, where the
penetration of Moods sights-and-scents business has been low compared
with the rest of the world.
We have a team of music gurus, visual specialists, sound and scent-tech
experts, Mr. Abony said. We develop compelling, consistent experiences
that connect our clients with their customers. The new brand signifies
the integration of the company.
As part of Moods incorporation of Muzak and DMX, the company has also
reduced staff, although it has not said by how much.
Muzak traces its roots to the 1920s, but the brand name appeared in
1934. It evolved from simple background music in hotels and restaurants
to a scientifically designed program to increase workers productivity
and make shoppers more comfortable.
Eventually the name came to be shorthand for any kind of innocuous
musical wallpaper, even if in recent years Muzak and its competitors
have also developed radiolike playlists of pop hits and oldies.
Music by Muzak became a pervasive soundtrack, accompanying activities in
offices, factories, supermarkets, hotel lobbies and even the Apollo 11
journey to the moon, said Joseph Lanza, the author of Elevator Music: A
Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong.
Although Mr. Abony cited the companys integration plans as the main
reason for dropping the Muzak name, he also said that Mood had studied
consumers opinions about Muzak. Aside from the fact that it was little
known outside the United States, he said, the brand had some baggage.
It is often perceived as an epithet for elevator music, he said. Muzak
was not the connotation that suggested that we have come a long way.
--
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